That made Pip laugh. She turned, now really smiling. “I know how uncomfortable it must be that my inheritance from my grandmother is twice the size of Delamere,” she said, then shook her head. “I would never consider Beau a fortune hunter, though. That would be such a mean accusation, wouldn’t it?”
And finally, she left.
Pip was not looking forward to the various confrontations she was expecting the next day. At least, though, tonight she could salve a bit of curiosity about Beau’s room. It was the first time she had ever crossed the threshold.
She suspected the room hadn’t been painted since his mother had decorated. The
walls were a hunter green, the curtains and covers cream, the walls hung with a few horse portraits and the plain oak desk cluttered with paperwork and journals. He still had his collection of books on the shelves, everything from the Iliad to Robinson Crusoe to treatises by Townshend and Coke on farming, which made her smile. An old cricket bat leaned against the wall alongside fishing rods and a faded globe, and the clothes press held a range of brightly embroidered vests she remembered with great fondness.
The only real color in the room besides those vests was, amazingly, the pillow covered with rather lopsided peacocks and daisies she had embroidered for Theo when she was seven which now rested on Beau’s bed. Walking over, she picked it up and held it to her, as if it carried its memories with it.
She could smell Beau’s special scent in the room, which was more comforting than the featherbed she climbed into a few hours later. She took a peek through the small telescope he had trained up to the heavens through his window and picked out Orion in the eastern sky, a constellation her friend Fiona Ferguson had taught her to love. She went to sleep on the pillow he used clutching Theo’s pillow and woke to the sun streaming through the windows he looked out. And she missed him all the more.
He had better forgive her for what she was about to do. Not the redecoration. One of the benefits of knowing Beau all these years was also being familiar with his taste. And the very last thing he would want in his house were Egyptian cats and snakes.
But she knew that the redecoration was just an excuse to see him in London. To have his back as he waded into this treasonous plot with the Rakes. Ever since she had seen that shadow in the basement she had had the worst itch between her shoulder blades that Beau’s investigation was a lot more complicated than he thought. Worse, she had the most irrational suspicion that if she weren’t there to keep him grounded, he would make this mission all about the fact that he hadn’t been able to protect Theo.
He needed her up there in London. He just didn’t know it yet. And she didn’t know why.
Quite amazing what one imagined when the man she loved beyond reason or sense was out of one’s sight.
When she woke to have Joyful tell her that the maids were moving the Drummonds to different rooms, she knew it was time to go. She had what she wanted. There was no good reason to rub their noses in it.
She wished they would leave, but she suspected they would hang on until they laid eyes on Beau. At least, though, she was reclaiming his place in his own home.
“I have a tour to take,” she told Joyful as she stood from her toilette. “I suspect I will have nightmares from the master suite. After that we will be moving along to London.”
“Mr. Beau isn’t gonna like it,” Joyful warned.
“I would be very surprised if you don’t feel the same suspicion I do, Joyful,” Pip said. “We need to be there.”
Joyful gave a lugubrious sigh. “We do. I’ll get ready. Billings said as how the duchess asked him to stay with us for the time bein’. I’ll tell him to find a coach, since he already sent back the duchess’s. Do we know where we’re stayin’?”
Pip paused, letting the early morning sunlight warm her face and the sweeping lawns outside calm her spirit.
“Why, I’m not certain,” she admitted. “I know Beau has a house on Charles Street. I imagine if Papa is in town, he’ll resort to his club. He so hates making a fuss.” Even so, she gave a bright smile that challenged failure. “I have certainly removed dust covers from more than one habitation in my life, Joyful. I say we sneak into our house on Bruton to see what the word is on father.”
Joyful didn’t look up from the clothing she was repacking into Pip’s portmanteau. “Coward.”
Pip’s smile just broadened. “Yes, indeed. News will get to Beau soon enough. Then I can remove the dust covers inhishouse.”
Before that, though, she had to face the challenge of the master suite. Slipping into an oversized apron she’d borrowed from a housemaid, she slipped paper and pencil into the pocket and straightened to take a purposeful breath.
“All right, my friend. Let us wreak some havoc.”
* * *
Beau hadn’t really neededto ride his Ares up to town. The note Drake had sent had set a time for a meeting a couple of days hence. He could have dropped Pip off at Delamere up on the Salisbury plain and then continued on alone. It would probably have been more sensible, since now he was without Sullins. But he had no illusions about how well he would do closed into such tight proximity with his wife. He needed these days to clear his head. He needed to be alone again where he couldn’t smell her scent or hear the music of her laughter. Where he couldn’t imagine her without all those clothes.
He wished he could say he was successful. But by the time he walked into Whites, the known haunt of Drake’s Rakes, he was irritable and short-tempered. Drake had better have had a good reason for the summons.
Of course, Drake had a good reason for the summons. Beau just hoped it was definite news. He needed occupation. He needed something to focus on. So he assumed his personae of the man about town and sauntered through the door as if he had nothing more on his mind than a congenial card game.
Nodding to the perennials in the bow window who always joined Alvanley, he wandered on to the card room where the Rakes usually gathered, using desultory play to cover more serious conversations. The message Drake had sent had set a time of one in the afternoon to meet. The room, however, was empty.
Beau looked around as if he’d find them hiding. Well, this was odd. As he stood there, one of the waiters came up for his order.
“Have you seen any of my usual compatriots?” Beau asked.
